Su Jin led 90,000 cavalry to march lightly, and arrived at the northernmost mountain of the grassland two days later.

This is already the northern part of the Liao country, and it is almost November, and the cold snap in the north has enveloped the land, and the weather has become cold; Su Jin's army entered Liao to fight in the middle of summer, at that time it was too hot to be bare-chested, so naturally he did not bring winter clothes, and after coming to Liao, there were few cold clothes among the looted materials, so at this moment the soldiers were still wearing thin jackets under their armor, and they ran on horses, and the cold wind was cold to the bone marrow.

Su Jin knew that he couldn't delay any longer, he originally wanted to bypass this mountain and get closer to Shangjing more secretly, but now this plan needs to be adjusted, with this mountain as a barrier, the cold wind in the north is better, if you go from the north of the mountain on a detour and delay until a heavy snow falls, then everything is over, and now you can only risk being discovered by the Liao people along the south of the mountain to the west.

The soldiers also came up with a lot of cold strategies, some people recognized that there are many long grasses called 'Ula grass' growing at the foot of the mountain, these things called Ula grass have an excellent effect on keeping out the cold, and after cutting and drying, the soft and loose warmth effect is very good, so the whole army used the rest time to go up the mountain to cut the grass, and then the half-green and half-yellow Ula grass was roasted and dried by the bonfire, and stuffed into armor and shoes, and suddenly it was like wearing a thin cotton jacket, which was much warmer.

Su Jin greatly appreciated these methods, the most important thing in the predicament is to complain, but to actively save himself, Su Jin vigorously promoted this method of keeping out the cold, and therefore promoted many soldiers who came up with a solution. But Su Jin knew in his heart that this was not a long-term solution, and the top priority was to hurry up and take Shangjing before the first heavy snow of winter, Shangjing was the capital of the Liao Kingdom, where there was everything, and if Shangjing was occupied, everything would be different.

Traveling along the south side of the mountain range for several days, there are many villages and towns along the way, Su Jin had to order all the people of these villages and towns to take with the army, because he was afraid that these people would ventilate the news, the Liao people mostly used harrier eagles or beacons to send messages, although the people may not have those means, but in order not to make mistakes, Su Jin can not take risks, in case Yelu Chongyuan divides his troops to rescue, he only needs four or five days to return from the grassland, and he leads his troops to walk in the uneven mountains, and he does not know how many days to reach Linhuang Mansion, and is targeted by Yelu Chongyuan, and the plan is completely bankrupt.

At the beginning of November, the mountains in front of him turned into plains again, Su Jin breathed a sigh of relief, and after camping that night, he sent scouts out overnight to investigate the situation ahead.

At dawn, the scouts reported that there was a city fifty miles away in the north, but it was not Shangjing, and the people were arrested and asked, saying that the town was called Ningzhou; Su Jin hurriedly spread out the map to see, and immediately stomped his feet again and again, walking along the mountain range is indeed to the west, but the direction of the mountain range is northwest, and it has been hundreds of miles north in seven or eight days, and it has actually reached Ningzhou; This Ningzhou to the south more than 200 miles is Wuzhou and Yikun, in the south is Shangjing, this is called the difference of a millimeter, lost a thousand miles, this year there is no GPS positioning, and there is no avenue to follow, the brigade of people and horses by virtue of the mountain and the rising and setting of the moon to distinguish the direction, how can there be no mistakes.

Pan Jiang and others suggested that they should first take Ningzhou to rest, and then march south, more than 200 miles to Linhuang Mansion, and the rapid march was only two days' journey, so there was no need to hurry.

Su Jin looked at the gray stratocumulus clouds rolling in the sky, and knew that a heavy snow was coming, in just two or three days, the weather was going to turn extremely cold, if Ningzhou was taken and delayed, it would be trapped in the lonely city by this heavy snow, when would the snow turn into a dry road to send troops, by that time, Yelu Chongyuan may have already shrunk the army back to Linhuang Mansion, and he could only wait for death.

"Ningzhou can't take it, even Wuzhou and Yikun can't move, the sky is about to snow, we only have one way to live, that is, to desperately take Shangjing before the snow falls, otherwise everything will be over." Su Jindao.

Jingtai said: "The marshal is right, we will be frozen to death and starved to death in the snow, and we have lost our mobility, only by quickly taking Shangjing can we survive, but I don't know what the situation of the generals of the dynasty is, Yelu Chongyuan's 250,000 troops are chasing him, it has been more than ten days, and I am afraid that the victory or defeat has already been known." ”

Su Jin looked at the gray sky outside the tent and said slowly: "The disparity in strength is too great, and there are many auspicious ones, now we have to race against time, not only before the heavy snow, but also before Yelu Chongyuan rushes back to Linhuang Mansion." ”

Pan Jiang sighed and said, "What if Yelu Chongyuan has already returned to the defense when we arrive at Linhuang Mansion?" ”

Su Jin raised his head to the sky and said quietly: "We have no way to retreat, we can only attack, because we go too deep, too long, cold, hunger and siege will crush us, no matter how brave you are, there will always be a time when you are powerless to return to the sky, I hope none of this happens." ”

The generals are silent, what Su Jin said is the truth, and he doesn't like to listen to it, but he can't deny that this is a fact; A question that has been in people's hearts for a long time has become bigger and bigger, and it is almost blurted out, since the war began, the army has caused such huge damage in the Liao border, and even the Liao people have transferred back the army from the southern battlefield to encircle and suppress, but why didn't our frontal army of the Great Song Dynasty take the opportunity to counterattack? So far, there has been no news of the Song army's counterattack and breakthrough, which has to make people wonder.

……

Yelu Chongyuan's army besieging Xinzhou launched a fierce attack early the next morning after setting up camp, nearly 80,000 Song troops and 50,000 Jurchens resisted desperately, the thin Xinzhou city defense has not been repaired for a long time, and there are loopholes everywhere, fortunately, Yelu Chongyuan's army has no heavy siege weapons, and can only rely on brute force to climb to the city with hooks or simple ladders, which gives the army defending the city too many opportunities.

This is probably the most barbaric and bloody siege and defense battle in history, for three days in a row, the walls of the four cities are always crawling with Liao soldiers besieging the city, the defenders on the head of the city will shoot the arrows out, smashed with stones, with long poles and buckets, boiled water to pour down, holding and jumping down, all means are used.

The besiegers kept grabbing people off the city walls with hooks, and the archers below shot arrows at the head of the city day and night, regardless of the mix of friends and enemies.

The corpses under the castle were piled up in a thick layer, and the corpses of the first day were trampled into flesh on the second day, and then covered by the corpses that fell the next day, and the water of the moat on the edge of the castle of Shinshu had been dyed blood-red, becoming a blood-colored streamer flowing on the edge of a ruined city.

The loss of the siege was huge, but Yelu Chongyuan didn't care, when he learned that the Song army in the city was not all, he guessed the strategic intention of the Song people, but after a few days of hard pursuit, the 80,000 Song army was driven into Xinzhou City, how could they escape, so he didn't want to build any equipment at all, but simply and rudely directly strangled them quickly with the tactics of the sea of people, and then it was not too late to go back to save Linhuang Mansion.

Things did not go as expected, and the city that I thought could be broken in one day under the onslaught was still stuck in three days, with more than 60,000 casualties; Although tens of thousands of Song troops defending the city also died, the city had not yet been captured, Yelu Chongyuan was very unhappy, and he had no time to spend it anymore.

In the early morning of the fourth day, Yelu Chongyuan transferred all the 100,000 elite tribal soldiers who had been hiding in the snow for several days to the battlefield, which was the elite troops he brought back from the front line, and he had planned to recuperate to deal with the Song army attacking Linhuang Mansion, but now it seemed that he had to be sent out in advance.

The Song army and the Jurchen soldiers defending the city obviously felt the difference, the Liao army's siege force was much stronger than in previous days, not only was it more well-equipped, but also more flexible, and the defenders in the city died more than 30,000, leaving only more than 90,000 soldiers to fight, and they were extremely tired.

When the Liao army offensive was in full swing, Wanyan Hu's selfishness brought catastrophic losses, half of the 50,000 soldiers and horses he brought turned out to be the surrender of Longzhou, and the surrendered troops suddenly turned against the water at the critical time, and cut the Song army and Jurchen soldiers around them at the head of the city, and suddenly the situation was in chaos, and the city wall of the West Gate was declared lost.

Wanyanhu tried his best to lead the crowd to counterattack, but he was already powerless, and the Liao army poured into the city of Xinzhou like a tide, and the momentum was unstoppable.

The dynasty guarded the two northeastern city walls, and when the news of the loss of the western city wall came, the dynasty knew that the general trend had gone, and he knew that he had to quickly evacuate Shinshu; Half an hour later, Wang Chao led 40,000 Song troops to break through from the North Gate, and finally broke through the North Gate with 20,000 Song troops with the weakest troops.

Although Yelu Chongyuan was angry, he knew that he had no time to chase people anymore, and ordered all the Song troops and Jurchen soldiers in the city to be killed, and at noon the battle of Xinzhou came to an end, and the Liao army paid the price of 90,000 people, and forcibly defeated the 80,000 Song troops and 50,000 Wanyanhu troops who were based in Xinzhou; The Song army broke through and escaped 20,000, Wanyan Hu died in battle, the defenders died in battle, and 30,000 were captured and beheaded.

Yelu Chongyuan knew that he could not delay, so he only rested for the afternoon and one night, and led the remaining 160,000 troops to return to Linhuang Mansion early the next morning.